{"id":3010,"date":"2019-02-08T13:47:04","date_gmt":"2019-02-08T13:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/?p=3010"},"modified":"2019-02-08T13:47:04","modified_gmt":"2019-02-08T13:47:04","slug":"kenyas-leaders-face-a-new-dilemma-in-fighting-al-shabab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/2019\/02\/08\/kenyas-leaders-face-a-new-dilemma-in-fighting-al-shabab\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya’s leaders face a new dilemma in fighting al-Shabab"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With the armed group recruiting Kenyan nationals to carry out attacks in their own country, the tactics must be reevaluated.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a week since the\u00a0deadly hotel attack\u00a0in Nairobi. Life appears to have returned to normal. But beneath the surface, Kenyan leaders have been left with a tough decision on how to proceed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously, every time a major attack by the armed group\u00a0al-Shabab\u00a0happened on Kenyan soil, the east African country responded by carrying out air attacks in neighbouring\u00a0Somalia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Security forces would also carry out security sweep in Eastleigh – a mainly Somali suburb in the Kenyan capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this time – because most of the attackers are\u00a0Kenyan nationals\u00a0unlike in previous major attacks – the incident has taken the\u00a0government\u00a0by surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time, a Kenyan national carried out a suicide attack on Kenyan soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An impossible task<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

There is no love lost between\u00a0Kenya\u00a0and the al-Qaeda-linked armed group. Nairobi sent its troops into Somalia in 2011 to fight it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Al-Shabab lost a string of towns to Kenyan and Somali troops. With that went lucrative revenues the group used to collect from these towns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, the group said Kenyans are a legitimate target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public spaces in Kenya are often guarded by unarmed private security guards. They are the country’s soft underbelly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government has said it will issue firearms to the private security guards. But with al-Shabab now using Kenyan nationals to attack Kenya and deploying their weapon of choice – suicide bombers – it is a tough task if not impossible for any security guard to prevent such an attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, with al-Shabab seeing every Kenyan as a target to be killed, will Nairobi be able to send armed guards to every school, hospital, club, parks and churches?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a developing country with many economic challenges, it is an impossible task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Al-Shabab has previously\u00a0attacked a university\u00a0and several churches in Kenya. The rebel group said it will stop attacking Kenya if Nairobi pulls its troops from Somalia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it is hard to see that happen as it will be viewed as a victory for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now, the\u00a0game of\u00a0cat and mouse between Kenyan security forces and al-Shabab continues with no sign of an end anytime soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LINK TO ARTICLE: https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/blogs\/africa\/2019\/01\/kenya-leaders-face-dilemma-fighting-al-shabab-190124105256192.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the armed group recruiting Kenyan nationals to carry out attacks in their own country, the tactics must be reevaluated. It is a week since the\u00a0deadly hotel attack\u00a0in Nairobi. Life appears to have returned to normal. But beneath the surface, Kenyan leaders have been left with a tough decision on how to proceed. Previously, every time a major attack by… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3010"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3011,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3010\/revisions\/3011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}